This article goes against a longstanding Ethiopian religious teaching: don’t utter anything bad about the dead.

Probably it is a good thing, something that has shaped our citizens into the decent people they are, though have been unlucky with national leaders. I must, therefore, add that teaching has certainly not been enough to help us enjoy meaningful earthy life nor, as a people, has it so far assured us of our heavenly place.

To come to the point, the cruel rape by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of our country on my mind, I have chosen to happily accept consequences of going against that Ethiopian standard of behaviour, instead of continuing to witness the endless abuses and exploitation by and servitude of our people to the ethnic mafiosi in power for a quarter century now!

Surprise! Surprise! Saturday is fifth anniversary of Meles Zenawi’s expiration. He was the cruelest of dictators, who has badly poisoned our country’s future and ruined its prospects to become a break out nation.Continue reading →

Ethiopia under the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is quietly experimenting its mini-nationalization of investor properties and enterprises.

Addis Abeba, Washington’s yet unsorted ally, its move would be seen as one of the most bizarre anomaly of our time. Given that the United States now is under the most hawkish business tycoon, in his own right the first United States billionaire President Donald Trump, members of his cabinet of similar wealths, the Ethiopian regime’s move is likely to smack the new US Administration on the face.

Such nationalization, anathema to the United States, the Trump Administration experiences in less than two months since assuming power could irk many, coming as it does as the most despicable political eccentricity under their early watch.Continue reading →

The Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency on 9 October 2016. Protests in Oromia, which later spread to Amhara and other regions, had been ongoing since November 2015.

The protests in the Oromia Region in November 2015 were initially against the government’s Addis Ababa ‘Master Plan’, which would have extended the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia Regional State. Protesters were concerned that the Master Plan would lead to evictions of Oromo farmers living in the outskirts of the capital.Continue reading →

Inside this year’s report, in its opening page what is reported about prosecution of corrupt officials is not entirely correct.

It states that the Ethiopian regime “generally did not take steps to prosecute or otherwise punish officials who committed abuses other than corruption.” An individual or individuals in Ethiopia are seized and taken ‘to court’ for corruption under one major premise – the corrupt individuals are not TPLF leaders and generally Tigreans in good standing with the regime.

By this operating procedure under the martial law, those who are penalized or their resources seized on mere suspicion are non-Tigrean Ethiopians, mostly Amharas and Oromos! This is a blind spot in this year’s human rights report.Continue reading →

A TRUE POLITICIAN’S PRICELESS QUALITIES

PASSION & A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY & PROPORTION.

Max Weber

PRESCIENT WARNING

"The government [Ethiopian] rules in a kind of commando fashion rather than building up strong governance institutions. This leads to a personalization of politics which raises important questions about the long-term sustainability of the current order. Ministers get involved in micro-managing policy – a practice that cannot be continued if the country does move to a higher level of development.

There will be increasing pressures to open the system up, but the ruling party is very reluctant to do so. It recognizes the need for capacity-building as such, but has yet to fully fathom that it will also have to increasingly cede some decision-making to civil society and autonomous actors in it. Western donors seem intent on pointing out that doing so can be of great benefit to Ethiopia as a whole and will help galvanize rather than impede its development."

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QUOTATION FOR THE AGES

"When they [government officials] first came they told us an investor was coming and we would develop the land alongside one another. They didn't say the land would be taken away from us entirely. I don't understand why the government took the land."

Farmer Gemechu Garbaba

His wife adds:

"Since the land was taken away from us we are impoverished. Nothing has gone right for us, since these investors came."